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Wednesday, April 18, 2012

And You Can Ride a Tricycle

Today's Prompt: Open Book. For today’s post, open the nearest book (or find your favorite and open that!) to a random page and point to a word or phrase on that page. Using that phrase or word as your inspiration, free-write for 20 minutes.

"And you can ride a tricycle."

All of my books rest silently on a shelf in my music studio...you know, that dusty, cluttered room I haven't been in for a good three months. I made my way to my bookshelf and surveyed the titles, ran my fingers over a few well-worn spines. And then I decided I'd rather choose a title off of Sweetie's shelf. Hers are far more interesting to me lately.

My choice was What Baby Needs by Dr. William Sears, a title I purchased for Sweetie to prepare her for the coming of Dibbs. A book in which she has had not one iota of interest. Kind of how she feels about Dibbs.

The page I turned to describes all of the things a big brother or sister can do that a baby can't.

Sweetie can't ride a tricycle yet though. We have several varieties of starter bikes. We have the classic Radio Flyer red tricycle that she will grow into once she figures out pedaling, a cool new wooden balance bike (which she is frustratingly not quite tall enough to use yet), and a trike with a push handle that we've been using in the backyard.

So far, she just likes that it has a bell that goes "ding ding." But today, she put her feet on the pedals and said "pedals" for the first time. Progress.

Each of these vehicles is meant to teach a toddler how to operate a more advanced version of itself. Helping her learn to pedal, balance, move forward, turn, pump her legs, hold on.

She is still learning. She doesn't know how to use her feet to move forward, doesn't know how to keep from falling, needs support from behind.

I feel like that sometimes managing a challenging health condition. Sometimes I forget that I know how to move forward. Sometimes I just can't get all of my parts cooperating. Sometimes I need someone to keep me from falling over.

I get excited by the different tools available to help me manage my diabetes. Pumps, monitors, meters. Each is trying to help me with a different aspect.

But just like a bicycle, there's quite a learning curve. If you can learn to ride the tricycle, you are off to a good start. Whatever that trike is to you, start slowly and keep pedaling.

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About Me

My name is Melissa Lee and I serve as Interim Executive Director of Diabetes Hands Foundation. I write for the online diabetes magazine A Sweet Life.org where I serve as Tech Editor as well as for my personal blog, Sweetly Voiced. I'm a patient advocate and technology enthusiast, married to a Nightscout core developer, and mom to 2 little kids who stole my heart and my sanity.